A single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) is a privately operated
vehicle
A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
whose only occupant is the driver. The drivers of SOVs use their vehicles primarily for personal travel, daily commuting and for running errands. The types of vehicles include, but are not limited to,
sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...
s (SUVs),
light-duty truck
Light truck or light-duty truck is a US classification for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to and a payload capacity up to 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg). Similar goods vehicle classes in the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zeala ...
s, and any combination thereof, along with all the various van and car sizes, but would generally be taken to exclude
human-powered vehicle
Human-powered transport is the transport of person(s) and/or goods using human muscle power. Unlike animal-powered transport, human-powered transport has existed since time immemorial in the form of walking, running and swimming. Modern technolo ...
s such as bicycles. This term is used by
transportation engineers and
planners. SOVs contrast with
high-occupancy vehicle
A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers, i ...
s (HOV), which have two or more occupants.
[National Research Council (U.S.). Special Report - Transportation Research Board, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, 1974.] Keep in mind that SOV in this context refers to a status and usage, not the vehicle type.
See also
*
Carpool
Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves.
By having more people usi ...
References
Driving
Road traffic management
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